1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to disk drive servo systems and more particularly to methods and means for controlling the deceleration curves during high velocity seeks.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Disk drive servo seek systems typically drive the head to a high velocity and control the velocity on deceleration so that the head can settled over a track in as short a time as possible. The servo systems obtain input from the servo tracks or other information on the disk which provides position information. Most prior systems differentiated this servo position signal to obtain velocity and adjusted the deceleration amplifier depending on how the the measured velocity varied from a desired velocity. Some systems used the time per track from servo position outputs to compute velocity of the head. See e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,721. Other systems have employed the time per track measured directly to compare to a desired time per track, and depending upon the difference, either turn on the deceleration amplifier or turned it off.
An advantage of systems employing velocity in the feedback loop is that it uses a measure of velocity to control velocity, a linear relationship. Correspondingly, systems employing time per track to control velocity have the disadvantage in that time per track is inversely proportional to velocity and a loop controlling velocity is non linear. This non linear relationship degrades velocity control accuracy.
However, computing velocity (differentiating or dividing distance by time per track) has the disadvantage in high speed systems in that if analog circuits are employed, a time lag is introduced into the feedback loop, and if digital techniques are employed, processor time to calculate velocity is high (division takes a lot of processor time). Therefore, velocity systems are inherently slower and therefore less accuracy is available. Seek speeds are thereby limited.